If you’re reading this - and you were married sometime within the past decade or so, you just might have an easy way out of your vows.

Blame it on the smartphone or the laptop.

A respected ultra-Orthodox rabbi has reportedly issued a bizarre interpretation of Jewish law, saying that if any witness to your wedding owned an iPhone or has access to “unfiltered” Internet - your wedding was invalid.

Just to make things fair, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, 85, of Bnei Brak, viewed by many as one of the "sages of his generation" says that the same rule also applies to divorce; if the guy handing you a divorce decree surfs the net - you’re still hitched and need to redo the entire process.

The Kanievsky ruling was reported by one Rabbi Aaron Feinhandler, who supposedly heads something called the “Committee for Clean Communications,” which works against spiritual corruption of the Internet in the ultra-Orthodox community. The meeting was reported and a letter by Feinhandler describing the encounter was originally published in the Haredi website Kikar Hashabbat on Monday. In the letter, Feinhandler said the meeting was witnessed by Kanievsky’s grandson Arye (who presumably isn’t online and therefore, is credible). The letter specifies “iPhone” and not “smartphone,” but one can assume that the rabbi isn’t a bigger fan of Samsung or Blackberry than he is of the Apple product.

In addition to marriage and divorce, the letter claims that Kanievsky ruled that Internet-users are disqualified to certify a mikveh, a ritual bathing facility for women as being "kosher" for use. The letter specifies that since rabbis who certify the ritual baths qualify under this ruling in cities like Jerusalem, where many employees of the religious council carry a smartphone, the municipal certification of the baths are invalid. The same goes for rulings of the country’s official religious court system, or any others where employees carry smartphones.

This means that if proven valid, and it does not turn out that interested parties put words in the elderly rabbi’s mouth, Kanievsky’s ruling not only casts doubt on the entire Israeli rabbinate - it sounds like a big headache. If taken at all seriously, it could be a potential source of marital strife, mean that countless children were conceived out of wedlock and lead to the nullification of thousands of court decisions.

The only ones who could possibly be happy about such a development are the attorneys who specialize in religious law. Talk about a bonanza.

Being an atheist goy, married to my eventually to be divorced secular Jewish wife in a civil marriage ceremony, I think that the marriage celebrant's ownership of an I-phone would be the least of a rabbi's concerns. My eventually to be divorced wife and I,(we have been separated for 15 years) together with our three sons and two grandchildren will be joyously celebrating my mother in law's 99th birthday in five days time. My mother in law still thinks that my eventually to be divorced wife should marry a good Jewish doctor.

Rules are for the guidance of the wise, and the blind obedience of fools. - unsourced

To deny your oppressor's, or your own humanity is to descend into barbarism. - V. Chelloveck

Survival is a battle for the mind...mainly one's own. - V. Chelloveck

A beautiful idea founded on faulty reasoning is like a turd wrapped in gold foil, tinsel and glitter. Neither are wholesome if swollowed whole! - V. Chelloveck

What is a religion, but a cult with a larger following and a veneer of respectability. - V.C.

Being an atheist goy, married to my eventually to be divorced secular Jewish wife in a civil marriage ceremony, I think that the marriage celebrant's ownership of an I-phone would be the least of a rabbi's concerns. My eventually to be divorced wife and I,(we have been separated for 15 years) together with our three sons and two grandchildren will be joyously celebrating my mother in law's 99th birthday in five days time. My mother in law still thinks that my eventually to be divorced wife should marry a good Jewish doctor.

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Your lack of commitment to the completion of the divorce perplexes me..... I have to ask why it has drag on so long. That just leaves one to be beat with a stick forever, essentially.... run.

"Freedom isn't free" --Colonel Walter Hitchcock
“The most important six inches on the battlefield is between your ears.” General 'Mad Dog' James Mattis
non semper erit aestas- It will not always be summer (be prepared for hard times)!!

Your lack of commitment to the completion of the divorce perplexes me..... I have to ask why it has drag on so long.

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Put that question in context with the pictures he typically posts in the Girls with Guns thread and the answer might be self evident.
Like the rest of us, he is afraid of what he finds attractive. Being married gives him a reason to refrain from pursuing.

Put that question in context with the pictures he typically posts in the Girls with Guns thread and the answer might be self evident.
Like the rest of us, he is afraid of what he finds attractive. Being married gives him a reason to refrain from pursuing.

Or maybe not.
AT

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I'm just a very tolerant and self sacrificing kind of guy....I'm probably saving some good Jewish doctor the experience of a catastrophic marriage. My eventually to be divorced wife and I actually get along quite well together...we just can't stand living with each other. The fundamental incompatibility is Scrabble. She can't bear to lose a game, but she can't bear to win too easily. The difference between the two is so infinitesimal, that the suggestion to "play a game of Scrabble" invokes panic attacks on my part.

Rules are for the guidance of the wise, and the blind obedience of fools. - unsourced

To deny your oppressor's, or your own humanity is to descend into barbarism. - V. Chelloveck

Survival is a battle for the mind...mainly one's own. - V. Chelloveck

A beautiful idea founded on faulty reasoning is like a turd wrapped in gold foil, tinsel and glitter. Neither are wholesome if swollowed whole! - V. Chelloveck

What is a religion, but a cult with a larger following and a veneer of respectability. - V.C.

“Man’s mind is his basic tool of survival. Life is given to him, survival is not. His body is given to him, its sustenance is not. His mind is given to him, its content is not. To remain alive, he must act, and before he can act he must know the nature and purpose of his action. He cannot obtain his food without a knowledge of food and of the way to obtain it. He cannot dig a ditch-or build a cyclotron-without a knowledge of his aim and of the means to achieve it. To remain alive, he must think." John Galt (Ayn Rand)

Patents are not evil, profit is not a dirty word, providing for your family's future is not a sin, and what is mine is not your's just because you want it. Kellory.I have received NO secret government orders.(Watch for this notice to be removed)